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I’ve always believed that more games should use northern accents.
My favourite part ofStill Wakes The Deepwas the Scottish patter between some of the rig workers.
Manchester excluded, obviously.
I don’t need that sort of jumpscare in my survival game, thank you very much.
Instead, I came away feeling…
So what’s the problem?
I hate to say it, but the problem is Scousers.
They shouldn’t, really.
What I’m saying is, the odd Scouser in the Lake District shouldn’t feel out of place.
So why does it?
A part of it is the time period Atomfall is set in.
We have a modern Scouse accent hitting our ears when a 1960s version should do the trick.
Check out interviews withthe Beatlesand Steven Gerrard, you’ll immediately hear the difference.
Back then, we sounded almost Brummie at times.
Breaking Immersion
But there’s something else, too.
It matters who is saying something.
And when I hear a Wyndham local speaking Scouse, it feels off.
These characters are Lake District locals, trapped in their village by a quarantine they don’t understand.
Their accents should reflect that.
If the Scouse accent came from an occupying soldier, I wouldn’t have this quandary.
They’ve been shipped in to keep the peace and prevent anyone from leaving.
When it came from the mouth of someone I assumed to be a Wyndham native, I felt confused.
There are possible explanations for this.
This NPC could have moved from Liverpool to Wyndham at some point before the incident.
They could have been on their holidays.
But this should have been intimated by the game.
Atomfall does a lot right.
The vast majority of the accents are right.
But there are a couple of NPCs who ruin the immersion for me.
They probably won’t for many other people.
H*ck, maybe there’s a super niche lead I didn’t follow that explains it all.
Prove me wrong, Atomfall.
Prove to me that Scousers aren’t the problem.
